I pray for a time when this poem is no longer relevant. But here we are again on the shores of another war, maybe just another chapter in The War that has been waging since man first gained consciousness.

but! we! cannot! simply! sit! and! stare! at! our! wounds! forever!

“But the fact of the matter is that the world requires improving (reimproving) every day. Just as one can’t prepare an all-purpose meal and dine once and then be done with the preparation and consumption of food forever, so one cannot come to the end of the fight for social justice and ecological safety, for example, forever. Victories are particular, local, and almost always temporary. To improve the world, one must be situated in it, attentive and active; one must be worldly.”

— Lyn Hejinian, in “If Written is Writing”, from The Language of Inquiry

Robert Mapplethorpe

Easter Lilies with Mirror 1979

Jules Lefebvre- The Grasshopper, 1872 (Detail)

note: although this was printed as a prose poem, the form conceals a perfect sonnet written in iambic pentameter.

why are y'all like actually stupid it kind of makes me sad I'm actually like losing a little hope for the world as a whole because you people are just dumb as rocks which is sad because I want to love humanity and all but you people make it so hard maybe it's because some of you just aren't real like I honestly just don't know how else to explain this other than you are one of god's many tests that the rest of us normal people with brains and souls just have to deal with or something like I'd genuinely love to know

favorite poem from that kids are better poets than us article on poetryfoundation. i tear up every time